(Photo by Tim Capper. Used by Permission.)

Financial Post noted: "PepsiCo Beverages Canada has brought its Pepsi Throwback to this country, some two years after the sugar-sweetened beverage was introduced for several limited runs in the U.S." It should be noted that Mountain Dew Throwback has not moved into Canada.

Have you seen Pepsi Throwback in Canada? Post your thoughts!

When I first saw the black bottle of Sprite at the Cancun airport I was very curious as to what it was. Upon closer look the bottle was all in Spanish and the only thing that I could understand was that it was a Limited Edition and that it was all-natural. What was Sprite – Botella Edicion Limitada?

I had to buy it and see how it compared to the traditional Sprite. It cost 55 pesos ($4.60 USD) which is a little more expensive but it was in an airport where everything is expensive anyways.

The "Botella Edicion Limitada" Sprite is in a black bottle with a black label. "Sabor natural" is on the front of the bottle, meaning natural taste. I think that this is aiming at the trend of carbonated beverages going all-natural.

Ingredient List

The natural bottle of Sprite contains sugar as opposed to HFCS that is in traditional Sprite. With Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback being released earlier in the year I think that Coca-Cola felt like they had to release something with sugar also. I do not know how easy it is find natural Sprite in other countries.

Comparison of Sprite bottles

After pouring both the traditional and natural versions of Sprite it was clear that the traditional had much more carbonation. They both smelled very similar and were identical in color.

The natural Sprite had a lighter flavor and not a lingering taste it was refreshing. The traditional Sprite had more carbonation and a slightly stronger flavor. Overall the taste between the two was not significantly different.

I think that this product will only be out for a short amount of time. I do not think there is much of a market for a natural version of Sprite. There is not a significant taste difference and the only advantage is that is contains sugar instead of HFCS. After tasting both of them, I actually prefer the natural version. I like the flavor and the lesser amount of carbonation. If anyone else finds the natural Sprite please let me know what you think.

Coca-Cola Plus Catechin
(Source: CocaCola.co.jp)

Case in point, Coca-Cola Plus Catechin. Here's how the Associated Press describes it:

Green tea-flavored Coca-Cola will hit Japanese stores June 8, Coca Cola (Japan) Co. spokesman Katsuya Sato said Thursday. It contains tea antioxidants called catechins, leaves a slight green tea aftertaste and is mainly targeted at health-conscious women in their 20s and 30s, Sato said. [Source]

Coca-Cola Plus Catechin
(Source: AP)

At the same time, Pepsi is rolling out what seems to be their yearly theme of Japanese novelty flavors. Hitting in late June, the latest is Pepsi Shiso, reported to have a basil flavor. Per Wikipedia, Shiso is also known as perilla, and is like a mint leaf.

Pepsi Shiso
(Source: Suntory.co.jp)

Like the rest of the world, Coke is the beverage leader in Japan, which leaves Pepsi to play catch up. And while here in the U.S. they try to do that with niche drinks like Pepsi Throwback, Pepsi Natural, and Sierra Mist Ruby Splash, in Japan the tastes seem to be a little crazier.

Pepsi Ice Cucumber
(Source: Suntory.co.jp)

For example, in 2007, Japan's Pepsi distributor, Suntory Ltd., rolled out Pepsi Ice Cucumber. It didn't actually contain any of the namesake vegetable in the ingredients, but did contain "the refreshing taste of a fresh cucumber," according to spokeswoman Aya Takemoto (per The Associated Press).

Pepsi Blue Hawaii
(Source: Suntory.co.jp)

Last year, Suntory followed that up with Pepsi Blue Hawaii, a combination of pineapple and lemon flavors. Our friends over at The Impulsive Buy noted that the taste was quite "sweet and artificial, especially the pineapple," but it eventually grew on them. Apparently, it tasted nothing like Pepsi Blue.

Pepsi White
(Source: Suntory.co.jp)

Then in late 2008, Pepsi Japan did it again with the introduction of Pepsi White, described as containing a Pepsi and yogurt flavor. The folks over at the A.V. Club remarked that it didn't actually taste like yogurt, but there was a creamy flavor with a hint of lemon.

While these drinks are probably all disgusting and on par with something you might find in a Jones Soda Holiday Collection, it's still pretty fascinating how these kinds of flavors come to market in Japan. Oh well, I guess we'll have to settle for some Mountain Dew Throwback while it lasts!

Julmust Christmas Soda

BevReview.com has a long history of reviewing holiday themed beverages. Most fall into the gimmicky flavored Jones Sodas like Christmas Ham and Christmas Tree; something to pique your curiosity but not satisfy your taste buds. Recently while strolling through my local World Market (think giant Pier1 but with specialty foods from all over the world) I came across Julmust Christmas Soda. Pronounced "yule-must"). Jul is Swedish for Yule, which means Christmas. The name intrigued me because it isn't suggesting you have a pleasant Christmas, it insists! Jul MUST!

Julmust is made by Guttsta Källa and features a drawing of Santa stirring up some sort of brew – the soda I assume. It was developed in 1910 as a non-alcoholic alternative to beer; which is interesting because it looks a lot like a thick winter ale – which makes sense because it is made with hops and malt from barley.

From their website (which does not contain much English) it states: "Nestled in the quiet Swedish countryside, in the area known as Bergslagen, lays the tiny village of Guttsta and Guttsta Källa AB where water has been tapped from its spring since 1895." Guttsta Källa uses this same natural spring water to make its Julmust soda which is available exclusively during the Christmas season. According to Wikipedia, 45 million litres of Julmust is consumed each December, which is a lot considering that there are only 9 million people in Sweden, and outsells Coca-Cola during the Christmas Season which prompted Coca-Cola to produce its own Christmas soda called Bjäre julmust". Pepsi tried their own hand here in the U.S. with Pepsi Holiday Spice back in 2004 and reviewed here on BevReview.

Enough about the history, how does it look and taste?

The soda has a very deep, almost black, color to it. Compare that to Coke or Pepsi which are more of a deep tan. It really looks like Guinness or a similar thick beer. The drink is very carbonated and when I poured it into the glass I could only get 1/3 of it in before it almost overflowed. The bubbles are so tiny and compact that the head rose very quickly and nearly ran all over the place. I was anxious to taste is and dove right in which resulted in a sticky foam mustache on my upper lip – the mark of a great soda, in my opinion.

The scent of Julmust was hard to determine. The ingredients only state the aforementioned "natural hops, natural malt (from barley)" and natural flavors – which could honestly be anything from molasses to herring for all we know. Their site says it's a well-guarded secret family recipe so the world many never find out. I thought it smelled like molasses and some mystery spices: perhaps cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice? As someone who tends to describe smells as colors, it smelled like purple.

When the foam subsided a lot of it clung to the sides of the glass. A sommelier will tell you that when it comes to wine this means it has "great legs". I am not sure if there is a term for it in the cola world but I will assume it is a good thing.

Now for the taste – it has a very pleasant, cozy, warming flavor. If you could bottle the Christmas spirit, carbonate it, and sell it, it might taste like this: deep cola, mild dark cherry, a hint of ginger, perhaps a bit of cacao. It's what I imagine Vikings would have consumed from an oak barrel during the Norman Conquest of 1066.

Julmust purchased from IKEA during Christmas 2007

This holiday if you are in Sweden or a World Market or even an IKEA, I recommend picking up a bottle of Julmust Christmas Soda and enjoying it with a bowl of freshly popped corn while watching your favorite Christmas movie. God Jul!

Nutritional Information
8 oz. – 90 calories, 0 fat.

Ingredients:

Julmust Christmas Soda
Ingredients: Carbonated water, sugar, natural color (caramel), natural hops flavor, natural malt flavors (from barley), citric acid, natural and artificial flavors, sodium benzoate (preservative).

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With the increase in teas showing up on the beverage market these days, it's interesting to see how the more "traditional" producers of carbonated soft drinks adapt to these trends. In this case, Canada Dry has combined what they do best and created what they call "a refreshing blend of green tea and ginger ale." And I agree with that assessment.

If there ever was a drink that really was a split personality, Canada Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale is it. There aren't that many drinks out there that are so much ginger ale AND so much green tea, but this beverage does that. Sure, you could say it's pretty much carbonated green tea, but the ginger ale elements really come through. It's an odd combination, that's for sure, but it just works.

Bilingual Label: English

I don't consider myself a green tea connoisseur, so the experience was a bit different for me, but I did enjoy the unique blend of flavors. It's a clean drink that has a distinct green tea sent when you first open the bottle (in my case, a 1.5 liter bottle). The color is on the clearish side, with a hazy yellow/green that you typically associate with ginger ale.

As for the taste, it leans more to the green tea side of things, but there's an obvious influx of ginger ale. The aftertaste also wasn't too syrupy, but the tea flavor does seem to last with you. The ingredients note the sweetener is "sugar/glucose-fructose", whereas in the U.S. it's listed as "high fructose corn syrup", so that may have some influence on the overall taste experience.

Bilingual Label: French

Thanks to the folks over at the Lesley Eats blog, we know that this drink does contain caffeine, which translates down to 0.83 mg/oz. For comparison, Mountain Dew has at 4.5 mg/oz. So while not completely caffeine-free, it's a pretty small amount, probably associated with the green tea. The packaging also makes a big deal about containing "52 mg of polyphenols per 250 mL serving". According to Wikipedia, "research indicates that polyphenols may have antioxidant characteristics with potential health benefits. They may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer."

A full ingredient list is as follows:

Canada Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale
Carbonated water, sugar/glucose-fructose, citric acid, natural flavors, green tea, sodium benzoate, ascorbic acid, calcium disodium EDTA.

A 250 mL (8.5 oz.) serving will cost you 100 calories, 55 mg of sodium, and 26 g of sugars.

Overall, Canada Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale is a refreshing change of pace, bringing two light flavors together with a blend that rewards your sense of adventure, while providing just a darn good drink to experience.

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This somewhat-translucent pink beverage smells fruity, almost like the powder used to make Crystal Light before mixed with water. I was looking forward to a different Fanta flavor, as here in the U.S. we're stuck with just Fanta Orange, Fanta Strawberry, Fanta Pineapple, and Fanta Grape for the most part.

Unfortunately, Fanta Wildberry is a pretty nasty drink. It has a flavor profile that I most similarly associate with Crystal Light's Raspberry Ice flavor… but with carbonation and a not-nice aftertaste. It's very syrupy and in no way represents any berry flavor I've ever experienced. The approach is typical of Coke's North American Fanta line, which we've criticized heavily here at BevReview.com. It's pretty much very fake-tasting soda no matter what the flavor.

Fanta Wildberry
Carbonated water, sugar/glucose-fructose, natural and artificial flavors, citric acid, sodium benzoate, colour.

A 355ml/12 oz. can of Wildberry will set you back 100 calories, 45 mg of sodium, and 51 g of sugars. This drink is caffeine free.

Rumor has it that Coke Canada is replacing Fanta Wildberry with a different flavor. Personally, I have no problem with that decision.

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According to the folks on the BevNet forums, the drink will contain "natural ingredients, cola nut extract, and cane sugar… available in non-returnable glass bottles, 600 ml PET bottles, 500 ml PET bottles, and 12 oz. can." It's also rumored to have strong carbonation.

Additionally, an article on Hispanic-focused CNNExpansión.com note that the drink is a Mexico-exclusive with a marketing budget of about $7 million U.S. dollars. The piece also claims that the beverage will be "calorie-free", however, that seems to be in conflict with the use of sugar cane as the primary sweetener. Obviously, a correction is needed there. If you use real sugar, there are going to be calories!

The drink is partially a response to the slowing economy in the United States, thus it will have a very targeted promotional emphasis, including various commercial partners, with hopes to improve Pepsi's sales numbers in Mexico. At this point, it has not been determined if this is a permanent line extension of a limited edition soft drink.

The use of the name "Pepsi Retro", along with the historic Pepsi logo font and various other stylized images is an obvious marketing decision to tie into the emotional remembrance of a historical Pepsi flavor. Unlike the positioning of the UK's Pepsi Raw, which is upscale, Pepsi Retro seems to be targeting more of an "everyman" market, while at the same time making old fashioned stuff seem "hip". This may also mean that the audience targeted might be slightly older than the traditional Pepsi drinker in Mexico. We'll have to see what happens with this release.

Here's the CNNExpansión.com article on Pepsi Retro (in Spanish)…

Pepsi se tropicaliza y se pone retro
Por Enrique Duarte
Publicado: 17:22 13 de febrero de 2008

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (CNNExpansión.com) — Una bebida sólo para mexicanos.

La compañía de refrescos en México lanzó la nueva Pepsi Retro, un producto con 'cero calorías' y elaborado con insumos naturales, que sólo se desarrollará y comercializará en el país y que próximamente será promocionado en conjunto con los socios de la firma.

(Source: pepsi.com.mx)

La inversión inicial para dar a conocer el refresco que utilizará una imagen ‘retro’ será de 80 millones de pesos, y esperan tener un crecimiento en sus ventas de 10% con este producto, explicó José Luis Ortiz, director de mercadotecnia de Pepsi en México.

"Es un producto hecho por nosotros, 100% en México para mexicanos con todo el sabor que estamos esperando", dijo el directivo.

(Source: pepsi.com.mx)

A pesar de la desaceleración económica por la que atraviesa actualmente Estados Unidos, el principal socio comercial de México, la compañía enfrentará la situación con una mayor innovación, lanzando más productos al mercado y sin realizar algún recorte de empleos por lo menos para este año.

Actualmente Pepsi, con todos los productos que ofrece (alimentos y bebidas), emplea alrededor de unas 70,000 personas en México.

(Source: pepsi.com.mx)

"Esperamos un 2008 complicado, por eso estamos tratando de ser bastante innovadores, los porcentajes de crecimiento del Gobierno (mexicano) son bastante más ajustados de lo que pensábamos, nadie sabe cuál es el efecto real de la desaceleración de Estados Unidos", dijo el directivo en una conferencia.

José Luis Ortiz dijo que la compañía aún se encuentra ajustando los resultados obtenidos en 2007, pero adelantó que se obtuvo un crecimiento de 1% en volumen de ventas con respecto al año previo. Además, dejó abierta la posibilidad de que la firma realice alguna adquisición durante este año.

Source

According to UK news agency The Press Association (and first discovered in a trademark filing back in October 2007), Pepsi is pitching this drink as a "natural, more healthy" option, first debuting at selected clubs and bars in various cities, including London, Manchester, Glasgow, Brighton, Birmingham, Leeds, and Liverpool. This would seem to indicate that the drink is initially being positioned for use in mixed drinks. Its packaging in a glass bottle also would note a more upscale product.

The ingredient list, as reported, includes apple extract, plain caramel coloring, coffee leaf, tartaric acid from grapes, gum arabic from acacia trees, cane sugar, and sparkling water. The color of the drink itself will be lighter and carbonation is reduced.

This release seems to capitalize on the trend that we've been seeing here in the United States, basically the backlash against high fructose corn syrup. Personally, I didn't know any different until I had my first taste of Kosher for Passover Coke. Since then, I've been a big proponent of the use of real sugar in carbonated soft drinks, mainly from a taste perspective. Soda is not healthy. It never will be. So when you are looking at drinks like this, it's more of an issue of which is "somewhat better" for you in regards to calories, chemicals used, and the like. We've seen the smaller soda pop manufacturers go the cane sugar route mainly as a differentiator, setting themselves apart from Coke and Pepsi, while at the same time justifying a higher per bottle cost because of the better use of ingredients.

Make no mistake, despite the marketing, Pepsi Raw isn't really "healthy". In fact, according to fitness blog Modern Forager, you are really only saving 9 calories vs. standard Pepsi (117 vs. 126 for a UK-sized 300 ml bottle, which is a little over 10 oz.). Raw contains 29.25 grams (6.96 tsp) of sugar vs. the 31.5 grams (7.5 tsp) found in regular Pepsi. Per their analysis:

A US size of 12 oz. is about 18% larger, bringing us to 8.85 tsp of sugar in Pepsi and 8.2 tsp in Pepsi Raw. But then again, most of us here in the US are downing the 20 oz. size like hot cakes, which adds another 66% to the sugar count, bringing the Pepsi to 14.8 tsp and Pepsi Raw to 13.7. So it looks like going on up to the 20oz version saves a teaspoon of sugar.

It should also be noted that Pepsi calls Raw a drink "made using ingredients from natural sources", not "natural ingredients" or "all natural". This may be to avoid the legal issues that Cadbury Schweppes encountered when they rolled out a reformulated version of 7Up in 2006, claiming the ingredient list was "Now 100% Natural." The company later backtracked and relabeled the drink as "100% Natural Flavors".

While the initial rollout of Pepsi Raw is limited to 7 cities, "a wider roll-out is expected later in the year." At this point, we don't know if that means an international release or not. Drinks under the proposed names "Pepsi Natural", "Pepsi Raw", and "Sierra Mist Essence" have been rumored on beverage forums for the past few years. In the meantime, Pepsi lovers looking for a more authentic taste with real sugar have to rely on imported Mexican Pepsi and Kosher for Passover Pepsi.

Here's The Press Association article on Pepsi Raw…

Pepsi launches 'healthy' option
February 11, 2008
The Press Association

Pepsi is the latest brand to launch a new "healthy" option.

Pepsi Raw is said to be made from natural ingredients and contain no artificial preservatives, colours, flavourings or sweeteners.

It is the first time that Pepsi has added a new drink to its range for more than 10 years.

The calorie content of a 300ml bottle is 117 compared to 126 for normal Pepsi.

Pepsi Raw has only natural ingredients including apple extract, plain caramel colouring, coffee leaf, tartaric acid from grapes, gum arabic from acacia trees, cane sugar and sparkling water. It is paler in colour and less fizzy than other cola brands.

Pepsi Raw advertising in the UK
(Source: Coloribus)

The company hopes that the introduction of Pepsi Raw will compete for a greater share of the cola market from the leader Coca-Cola and at the same time it will capitalise on the growing consumer demand for more natural products.

The UK cola market is worth £6 billion a year and is dominated by the two companies that have been rivals for more than 100 years. Currently Coca-Cola outsells Pepsi in the UK soft drinks market. Coca-Cola held on to its position as the UK's most valuable grocery brand in 2007.

Pepsi marketing director, Bruno Gruwez, said: "We are really proud that the UK is leading the way with the launch of Pepsi Raw, which is the most significant innovation from Pepsi UK in the last 15 years.

Pepsi Raw advertising in the UK
(Source: Coloribus)

"Responding to consumer trends towards premium and more natural products, it contains no artificial preservatives and is made using ingredients from natural sources. By launching Pepsi Raw in bars and clubs, we hope to engage with customers in a new way and are confident that they will enjoy its sophisticated cola taste."

Initially, Pepsi Raw will only be available in selected bars and clubs in seven cities – London, Manchester, Glasgow, Brighton, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool, although a wider roll-out is expected later in the year.

Source

Boing! is bottled by a company known as Sociedad Cooperativa Trabajadores de Pascual, S.C.L. (or just Pascual, for short). If you dig into the history of the organization, you'll find a fascinating story. In the 1982, due to devaluation of the peso, the Mexican government ordered a pay raise for all worker salaries. The owners of the company at the time, Pascual, S.A., refused to honor this decree, thus the workers went on strike (apparently resulting in a few controversial deaths along the way.)

Eventually, the workers returned to the organization 3 years later, as in 1985 the factory was turned into a cooperative. So basically, we have a soft drink company owned by the workers, utilizing fruit and sugar grown in Mexico, that is now a production coop that is considered a success for the labor movement. And guess what? The drinks are pretty tasty as well!

Pascual sells a variety of products, but Boing! is one of the flagships brands. The drink is currently offered in flavors such as mango, tamarind, strawberry, grape, apple, orange, guava, pineapple, soursop, and peach. According to Wikipedia, "the company consumes about 20 thousand tons of fruit annually and 24 thousand tons of sugar."

The Mango flavor is the one we checked out on this visit. Its ingredients are pretty tasty, reflecting the natural claims of a fruit-based drink: water, 15% mango pulp, sugar, citric acid, sorbitol, lecithin, natural coloring (carmine red and beta-beta carotene), 0.03% sodium benzoate and 0.005% potassium sorbate (as preservatives), and sodium erythorbate (as antioxidant). A 11.7 oz. glass bottle packs 161 calories, 29mg of sodium, 39g of sugar, and over 10% of your recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C.

Upon opening the beverage, you are greeted with a delightful mango scent that hearkens to what a fruit juice should smell like. As for the taste? Smooth. Very smooth. You can't mistake the fruit found in this drink. There wasn't pulp or anything, but a very authentic flavor that reminded me quite a bit of the natural beverages I experienced during my time in Costa Rica not too long ago. The flavor is very sweet, very real. Good stuff!

On a side note… as I did research on the company, it's interesting to note how their corporate logo very much resembles Donald Duck. Apparently, the company has been using Pato Pascual (Pascual Duck) since the 1940s. If you look at the original logo, it's pretty obvious that it's Donald. Of course, the logo was never licensed by Disney, resulting in the two organization butting heads quite a bit over the years. Finally, in 2007, Pascual redesigned the character to be a "rapper-style duck with spiky feathers and a blue baseball cap worn backward." Even now, it still looks quite a bit like Donald!

For more information about the logo change, here's a Reuters article from May 2007:

Donald Duck vanquishes Mexico soft drink lookalike
May 11, 2007
REUTERS

MEXICO CITY – Donald Duck has chased off a Mexican look-alike after a trademark dispute that simmered for decades between Disney and a beverage maker that copied the hot-headed cartoon character for its logo in 1940.

Pascual Boing, known in Mexico for tropical fruit drinks like mango and guayaba, is ditching its old logo based on Walt Disney Co.'s sailor-suited duck in favor of a rapper-style duck with spiky feathers and a blue baseball cap worn backward.

The updated character still will be known as Pato Pascual (Pascual Duck) and the beverage cooperative already has printed the new logo on some of its packaging. Alfonso Sanchez, No. 2 on the Pascual Boing board, said the company was replacing logos on its trucks and staff uniforms with the new design.

"The dispute hasn't been decided one way or the other but we wanted to bring this face, which is years old, up to date," he said. "The new one is similar but younger."

"It was time to modernize the logo."

A Pascual Boing spokesman explained the logo change by saying, "To avoid ending up with a more complicated situation, court cases and everything, we decided to modify the logo."

Disney declined to comment.

Pascual Boing adopted a logo identical to Donald Duck just as the spluttering white-feathered star was challenging Mickey Mouse's popularity in the United States and making waves in Mexico with his famously mercurial character.

It got away with it for 40 years but a trademark dispute blew up about 30 years ago, just as Pascual Boing was battling massive new competition from U.S. fizzy cola drinks.

After a court case in Mexico, Pascual Boing altered Pato Pascual very slightly so it could keep the logo, the company spokesman said. But a few years ago Disney renewed its objections and said the duck still looked too much like Donald.

About the same time as the battle over its duck began, Pascual Boing was struck in the 1980s by a bitter labor dispute that led to workers taking control and transforming it into a cooperative. Today it has a workforce of about 5,000 and has clung onto 15 percent of Mexico's soft drinks market.

Mexicans are among the world's biggest guzzlers of sugary drinks and increasingly shun natural fruit beverages for Coca-Cola's Coke, Sprite and apple-flavored Manzanita Lift or PepsiCo Inc.'s Pepsi Cola and Manzanita Sol.

Source

This drink comes in a 12 oz. clear glass bottle with standard bottle cap, labeled as "Made in Mexico". The color of the beverage is darker than standard apple juice… sort of a light caramel cola look. I didn't really know much else about this drink, but after a little Internet research, I happened upon the official distributor to the United States, Novamex. My bottle noted that is was distributed by Tipp Distributors, which is obviously a subcontrator in the Novamex network. The official website for Sidral Mundet was very helpful in explaining the context of the drink:

In the first part of the 20th century, Mexico began bottling the so called "limonadas" or "gaseosas" in the classic marble bottles… One of the most representative names of this "golden" age in Mexico was that of Don Arturo Mundet, manufacturer since 1902 of the popular "Sidral Mundet", who also started producing bottle caps as soon as this concept was invented in the US.

Sidral Mundet, once bottled, is submitted to a pasteurization process, which consists in having the tapped bottles go through a series of water curtains at different temperature levels, resulting in the elimination of any yeasts, fungus, or bacteria from the soft drink. The beverage ends up free of any deteriorations or alterations, while keeping its refreshing flavors and nutritive qualities untouched.

…Today, Sidral Mundet is one of the most respected brands of Mexican soft drinks and a tradition of quality in Mexico. Moms trust Sidral to their children for stomach aches and as a hydrating serum when they get sick.

The ingredients of this beverage include purified carbonated water, sugar, blended apple juice, citric acid, caramel color, and sodium benzoate (as preservative). Nutritionally, a 12 oz. bottle will run you 195 calories, with 40.5g of sugar and 60mg of sodium. The drink is available not only in 12 oz. glass bottles, but also 20 oz. and 1.5 liter plastic bottles as well.

When you pop the cap, you aren't greeted by a very strong scent. That's not a bad thing, but compared to American sodas which have overpowering syrupy smells, it's different. There is a slight apple juice/ginger ale-influenced scent.

As for the taste… excellent. This is a light beverage that is very clean. It can probably best be described as tasting like an apple juice version of sparkling grape juice. The carbonation is light, just enough to make it fun. It's great that this drink uses real sugar… the clean taste shows. You can definitely taste the natural apple flavor and there is not a hint of artificialness in the drink experience.

I highly recommend Sidral Mundet. You should be able to find it at your local Hispanic supermarket or other specialty food retailer, such as a World Market. It's worth the hunt.